Name the Kitty!!

Her she is! Let hear your ideas for a name. She is very friendly and sweet and purrs loudly.

Today, we went to the father in laws home for Thanksgiving Day. On the way we stopped at E's daughters home and visited with the family and grandsons. The boys, ages 7 and 4, had a blast wrestling with Papaw W. Especially the youngest. Here are some photo's I took today. I think they wore Papaw out! We don't see them a lot as they live 1 1/2 hours north of us.

We saw the first snow flakes of the winter, as we drove north too. I am so ready for spring and warm weather!

Received some nice compliments on the 'thinnner' me from some family members that hadn't seen me since early in the year.

We arrived home just at dark, in time to feed the beasties, and OH, I forgot to mention another beastie that we acquired today! Father-in-law gave us a new kitten. I did not want another one, as our little dog thinks they are her toys. And I don't want this kitten or any other injured, like Elliot was, with the dog chewing on them. This kitty is in a wire cage in the barn. She has a litter box, food and water and a nest box, inside her cage. She is safe for the night at least. Now to teach that -------- dog that cats are off limits! How to do that? Especially when we aren't home during the day?

So, how about a Name the Kitty contest? I will post a photo of her as soon as I can take a picture of her and will let my vast audience of readers name her!!

There is nothing that is happening here to write about. Just the daily 'stuff'! Yesterday the horse trimmer was here for 3 hours, (he is soooo slow), E went hunting in our woods, and he got a little 2 point buck. Good eatin' he says, being young and tender. Here are some random photos that I have taken recently. S took the one of my kitty and Katie.

I had what I thought was a unique experience today. I was sitting on the couch at the home where I care for the twin boys. They were playing on the floor and I happened to see a bird outside on the patio. The patio had a 5 foot stone wall at one end of it. This bird was on the floor and would hop up onto a metal lounge chair and hop up onto the rungs under the chair, then up to the seat, then up on the arm of the chair, then up a bit more until it managed to sit onto the top of the back of the chair. The top of the stone wall was about 10 to 12 inches above the back of the chair. This bird tried repeatedly to get to the top of the wall, but would fall back to the floor, then start all over again. I watched it for an hour then I got up and walked over to the glass door and watched it awhile. It didn't look injured in any way. I opened the door, walked slowly over to the chair where it was sitting, expecting it to at least try to get away. But it sat there watching me, turning its head this way and that way, peering at me. I slowly reached out my hand with a finger extended like you would to a parakeet, and it sat there watching me. I touched it on the breast and had to finally touch its feet with my finger, then it stepped up on my finger and I lifted it up onto the wall. It hopped back and forth a bit then hopped off of the wall on to the ground on the other side. I went back into the house and left it to its own little world. Here is what it was, so pretty:



http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/PhotoGallery/MigratoryBirds/8.cfm





And here is the recipe for those wonderful beans that I mentioned in my last post! Made your mouth water, huh?



Cowboy Crockpot Beef, Beans and Bacon



1 pound ground beef

3/4 to 1 pound bacon (I used 3/4 pound)

1 cup onions, chopped

2 15-ounce cans pork and beans with liquid

2 16-ounce cans Ranch Style or pinto beans, drained (I used Ranch Style)

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon liquid smoke*

3 tablespoons white vinegar





Slice bacon into bite-size pieces. In a skillet, brown bacon, ground beef and onions. Place meat and onions in a slow-cooker with the beans. In a small bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, liquid smoke and vinegar. Add mixture to the beef, beans and bacon in the slow-cooker. Stir well and cook on low for four to nine hours.

*Liquid Smoke can be found in the condiment aisle of the grocery store, near the Worcestershire Sauces, etc.





And this is how I cooked this. I sliced the bacon up into 1 inch pieces and fryed it and dumped it into the crockpot, then chopped the onions and cooked them in about a tablespoon of the drippings and put them in the crockpot and then cooked the ground beef and added it to the pot. While all those were cooking I drained the beans, then added them and the rest of the ingredients and mixed it gently so as not to mush up the beans too much. I cooked mine for 5 hours. Oh, so good! ( I only tasted it, but wanted to eat a big bowl of it). It would have been worth any (dare I say?) gas attacks!

Hello all, it is hard to imagine that it is the middle of November! It was so nice out today! We had hundred or maybe millions of ladybugs swarming today! This warm weather has brought them out. Had to keep flicking them off of me and out of my hair.

I brought my little boys home to our house today. E is home this week on vacation and it was so warm, I thought it would be good for them to get out. They loved it. The chickens intrigued them, but were afraid of them. The chickens would go into their house every time they came close to the chicken pen, but they eventually got so they would stay out side just to see what was 'out there'?

The horses ran from them when they first got here, but soon came back and J would reach out one finger and touch Solomon on the nose, then he would laugh and look so proud of himself! D wasn't afraid of the horses at all. Had to watch them awfully close, though. They had no fear after a bit, and those horses are awfully big!

Then J saw the TRACTOR! They couldn't get enough of sitting on them. One on each tractor, turning the steering wheel back and forth. E had gone to get fertilizer for the hay field and they helped him put the hitch plate on, screwing the nuts on the big bolts. They loved it!

E found a recipe for Cowboy Crockpot Beef, Beans and Bacon in the last issue of Western Horseman. He said I know what I want you to make for supper! So yesterday, I made them and wow! were they good! I just tasted them as beans aren't on my eating plan at the moment. I could have eaten the whole potful!! So good!

Other than the daily chores, going to work, cooking supper, and feeding the animals, nuttin is going on around here. Just our ordinary 'stuff'.

In Remembrance, to a favorite Aunt

July 12, 1928-November 6,2007

Since life is kind of humdrum at the moment, I have let this blog sit here and get stale. So I will try to freshen it up a bit, even though there is nothing going on around here. Maybe you all could let me know if any of it is interesting to you.


Yippee, we got the washing machine repaired! We called several appliance stores here in Bloomtown and Spencer to see if we could bring in into their shop (cheaper ?)and get it repaired and were told by all that they still charge a 70.00 to 80.00 dollar service charge just to look at it and " no, we only come to the customers home, we don't do our work here at the shop". E knew someone (the owner) of an appliance store in Martinsville from when he was still working in that town. He called him and was told to bring it on up! We did and they replaced the pump. The bearings had gone out. (this machine is only 3 years old, mind you!) We drove up and brought it home a few days later and did a couple of loads of laundry and it was still doing the same thing that we had been having trouble with for several months (a separate problem from the bad pump, which went out the weekend before we took it to Martinsville.) When running a load in it, it would do the wash cycle, then when it was ready to spin, the tub would spin very, very slowly, and if you weren't right there when it started to spin, it would smell like burning rubber and all the dirty water ended up on the floor. I would have to set the timer at the beginning of the wash cycle to 22 minutes, then be on hand when the timer went off and it was ready to spin. Raise the lid and set it back down, and wa-la! it would take off and spin like it was supposed to! Repeat with the rinse cycle. So were were a slave to the wash machine!


Since it was still behaving like a naughty child, E called them and they sent a repairman down here to the house, no charge! He wanted to see it in action. He tried several things, including checking the belt. But he said it was still tight. He was very puzzled and said in all the many years he has repaired these machines, he has never had one do this. (why did raising the lid and closing it again make it take off and spin?) Finally he said he would try one last thing! Replace the belt and see what happens! Well, it worked like a charm and has continued to do so. The old belt was tight, but it had a couple of shiny places on it, and it was slipping just enough to keep the pump from doing its job. Only cost me the price of the belt! Glad they got that figured out!


A couple of weeks ago, I was given a greenhouse. Well, a greenhouse frame. We had to disassemble it and haul it home. Here is a photo of it before we took it apart.









And this photo is of the frame laying on the ground in our yard. When we were taking it apart, we discovered that 10 boards (2x4's) have rotted ends and will need to be replaced. The only part of it that was built with treated lumber were the 5 2x4's that came in contact with the ground. The rest of it is not treated. If we choose to replace them, we will use treated lumber. But now that we have it home, we are trying to decide what to do. How do we heat it? It is a long way from the outdoor furnace which would heat it very nicely and cheaply. But...there is no place to put it near the stove that has enough light for a greenhouse! The trees in our yard are too big and would shade it too much. So now what? We are still thinking on that perplexing problem.



E has been out sitting in his tree stand the last couple of mornings. It was 29 degrees yesterday morning! EEEEK! Too cold for me!! He has seen several deer but so far nothing in the right place at the right time. I watched two bucks come up the back pasture yesterday evening with the binoculars, while he was still down in his treestand. One was a six point, and the other was larger but it was too dark to really see how big. He said "I hate you" when I told him what I had seen! (he wasn't serious). But this is the third time I've seen a big buck, when he was out hunting! He also said yesterday morning he saw something that was either a weasel or a mink!







My Thanksgiving Cactus sat out on the porch all summer and when the nights get below 45 degrees it starts to set buds. Here is a photo of it. The whole plant is about 18 -20 inches across and is covered with these pink flowers. It is so pretty.

S and I went on a field trip last Saturday with the Photo Club. We went to Cascade Falls and McCormicks Creek State Park. It was very overcast and chilly, but we took some nice pictures. S and I went with two other ladies and one of them mentioned that she wanted to sell one of her cameras. (she makes her living with them, doing weddings, custom work for people and other photography jobs) She needed to upgrade and she always has two cameras with her at all times so she always has a back up. I asked her what kind she had and she said I have it here, do you want to use it today? I told her sure, and she handed it over! After getting a bit of instructions on what does this button do, or this one, and what is this for, I was good to go. I spent our entire field trip using it and S used my own camera. At the end of the day, I bought it. She is letting me pay her in installments, as I don't have that much cash laying around. I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it! It is a Canon EOS 30D. It can do a lot more than my own camera. Maybe I can make some money with it? I would like to try!! The lady I bought it from is very talented and does excellant work. She told me that I had a very artistic eye. She looked at the photos I took that day and said she really liked a couple ot them, and asked me if she could take them and 'tweak' a couple of them in Photoshop. (I don't have that photo program). Hmmm. Maybe there are possibilities here? We shall have to see where this leads me. Until next time, Sharon